All centenaries are remarkable. Even those which occur in the
dark times of danger and despair. This is APN's 200th edition,
a not inconsiderable achievement considering the sandbanks and
floating debris which have endangered the progress of our little
boat in the swollen river of political rhetoric, deception, propaganda,
threat, obfuscation and, finally, incompetence and ignorance,
as it has been swept and tumbled in a violent passage to the sea
of trouble in which South Africa now finds itself.

It would be comforting but, alas, not be true to say that the
times in which we lived during the last ten years have been momentous.
Matters of moment are those which lead on to greatness, as human
effort is piled on human effort to erect a structure built to
withstand the judgement of history. But we in the "New SA"
have erected no such structure, despite our supposed "miracle".
Rather we have torn down the little civilisation which our pioneering
forebears had managed, with anguishing struggle, to erect in this
far off corner of Africa.

In the ruins we have sown anarchy. Much of this destruction has
been wrought in the years of APN's existence. If APN lives beyond
this anniversary - or is allowed to remain alive in a brutal environment
which resents our very being - we will perhaps be condemned to
a fate perhaps worse than that which we have endured: the fate
of recording the details of South Africa's final destruction.

Do some still doubt that possibility? Let them recall the bleak
events which in just three decades have brought so much misery
to this sub-continent. Of Zambia, once a thriving and prosperous
colony which attracted many of our most enterprising young men
seeking their fortune in farming and on the Copperbelt. Of Rhodesia,
the country to which so many people of conscience fled in protest
against the perceived injustices of apartheid. Of Mozambique and
Angola, cursed with a backward colonial power, but blessed with
a creed of non-racialism.

Can there be any sorrier fate than that which befell Lesotho and
Tanzania, unless it be that of Uganda ( "The Pearl of Africa",
no less!) of Rwanda and Burundi, or the deep heart of darkest
Africa, Zaire? Or shall we point, in mindless optimism, to the
one or two states which, because of their tiny populations and
insignificance, appear to have escaped the scourge of Black totalitarianism?

Hardly. Every day brings more evidence of the fateful stench of
decay, Africa-style, in our country, decay which starts with ignorance,
feeds on the brutality of the fast multiplying hordes, where dog
eats dog, rejects all moral restraints and ends in self-aggrandizement,
in lust for wealth and power, in intolerance and corruption, crime
and chaos.

South Africa, after all is said and done, is Africa.

The question which we ask ourselves on this anniversary is: "Were
we more hopeful in 1983 than we are today about our country?"
Let us try to answer that. APN, as subscribers well know, has
never been starry-eyed about any group of politicians,
internationalists, industrialists, businessmen, academics or other
proclaimed soothsayers. From our very inception we warned against
the liberal/Marxist/Utopian/New World Order assault.

LEGAL TERRORISM

We questioned the bona fides of the ANC/SACP alliance,
with its unquestioning allegiance to Moscow and a foreign ideology,
and its fellow travellers in the churches, academia and the media.
For that we paid in blood.

For years, until with the aid of family and friends, we set up
our own Legal Defence Fund, APN was the subject of unremitting
legal terrorism from the radical ANC/SACP - supporting left. Again
and again we were hit by politically motivated suits which had
not the faintest chance of success in the courts, but cost us
dear in time wasted, mental stress and hefty legal expenses. These
falsely founded civil suits very nearly forced us into bankruptcy,
saw us smeared and vilified in the courts and the media. Repeatedly,
Supreme Court judges wrote in their opinions that the complainants
had failed to produce any facts, that the relevant case was frivolous
and without merit. Yet still the notices of action rolled in.

SURVEILLANCE

We have otherwise been threatened, attacked, investigated, spied
on, subject to electronic surveillance. Agents of the old National
Intelligence Service offered friends and colleagues handsome remuneration
to report on our movements, our contacts, sources of information.
Being under fire is said to concentrate the mind. To a degree
that may be true.

Often we felt at one with Sir Andrew Browne Cunningham who, when
heavily outgunned by the Italian fleet at Taranto, in November
1940, signalled: "We are so outnumbered that there is only
one thing left to do. We must attack." So he did. And so
did we. One consolation: Never any shortage of targets.

Often and often, especially in the past seven years, we have wished
it were possible to be more upbeat. But, for better or worse,
we have a dogged commitment to what we perceive to be the truth.
You may not agree with everything or anything we write, but we
find, that the typical APN subscriber as a realist, who wants
the unvarnished truth rather than the pabulum, softsoap and white-wash
which these days passes for "news" in the electronic
and print media.

THE NEW SOCIETY

We believe that the way forward will be found more readily if
people disabuse themselves of fantasy and illusion, however alluring
it may seem. We do not reject, as many conservatives do, the idea
of change/process politics. Indeed, the idea of progress is central
to our view of the world. What we do reject is the Marxian theory
that to create The New Society, The New Man, all earlier institutions
built up over time and at great human cost, have to be destroyed
to be replaced with institutions which spring live from the minds
of idealists and ideologues and are, alas, invariably installed
by incompetents, hypocrites and outright crooks.

We don't believe much in political miracles. And we certainly
don't think that they are easily performed by the demolishionists.
People like Marx, Lenin and Gramsci... and the SACP. We think
that the way forward is usually found by improvement and reform,
produced by reason and conscience. That this position is these
days regarded as arch-conservative says a great deal about the
success of the Communist international propaganda campaign against
the Western ideals of freedom, order and progress. We in Africa
and in South Africa are today reaping the rewards of that kind
of programme.

P.W. BOTHA

The world we knew in 1983 was a frenzied one. That year marked
the greatest political transformation in South Africa's history
up to that point: P.W. Botha's public admittance that Whites could
no longer rule South Africa alone. To our great relief many the
White electorate gave a resounding "Yes" to the referendum
question "Should Indians and Coloureds be included in the
Parliamentary system?"

It was probably the first time in history that a ruling minority
freely decided to share power with the rest of the country. It
was also the first time since 1956 that national-level power was
extended to non-whites. In January, 1985, the three-tier Tricameral
Parliament was formally inaugurated. The concept of apartheid
was, effectively, dead: and a beginning was made on the larger
goal of a multi-racial federal state.

Though we were troubled by the omission of Blacks from the new
constitution, APN welcomed the move, as a start to the delicate
task of power sharing. We recognised that it would be no easy
thing to shift peacefully to a multi-racial democracy after three
centuries of rigid segregation. Always there is much danger in
major political change. With others, we feared that would be no
exception. We soon found those fears to be well grounded.

Nothing that Botha could do was enough for his critics. As he
thought to stem the avalanche of criticism, at home and abroad,
by offering one desperate concession after another, the country
descended precipitously into disorder and instability. Most of
the chaos occurred in the black townships. And, as in 1976, it
involved the schools. The new uncertainty provided the left at
home with a climate highly conducive to violence, intimidation
and coercion.

INSURRECTIONISTS

Young people in general, but children in particular, were exploited
mercilessly by adult insurrectionists, often renegade Afrikaners,
Jews and Indians. Stark terror also emerged at this time as a
method of intimidation. The necklace appeared - to quote the ANC's
own words, "to make the death of a collaborator so grotesque
that people will never even think of it". Often it was used
by children egged on by adults. Winnie Mandela was at the height
of her notoriety.

Botha, helpless to stop the madness, resorted to ineffectual threats
- the word Rubicon brings it all back - and turned his attention
to the dangers from across South Africa's borders in an effort
to damp down incursions by the revolutionaries and to stem the
flow of weapons into the country. To the authorities in the Eighties,
the campaign to unseat South Africa's legally constituted government
by insurrection at home and foreign agencies and Soviet fronts
abroad, looked suspiciously like "total onslaught".
To fight it, the government developed a "total strategy".
Where did APN stand?

UNSPEAKABLE

We bitterly opposed the terror. In our view, absolutely nothing
in South Africa could pardon the unspeakable brutality of burning
innocent people alive. It is useful to remember that in September
1986 Mr Alfred Nzo, our distinguished present Foreign Minister,
openly backed the use of the "necklace". speaking in
Lusaka, he said: "Collaborators with the enemy had to be
eliminated". Asked if this included necklacing, "Nzo
nodded emphatically". (Natal Daily News, 16.9.86).

We detested the employment of children by the revolutionaries
to fight their battles. We called them cowards and murderers then,
and we see them as that today, whether or not they now sit in
the legislature, the executive or the judiciary.

APN did believe there was a total onslaught on the country, an
onslaught orchestrated by the old USSR, in its desperate efforts
to recover from its defeats in Angola and Afghanistan.There were
good reasons for Moscow's interest in this country. Above all,
the urgent need to get its hands on our mineral wealth to replenish
its treasury. In all its costly African adventures, it had acquired
nothing but expensive liabilities.

This did not mean we believed all political opposition was inspired
or fed by the communists. Far from it. We knew all about the machinations
of the US, the NWO, the Scandinavians, France, Australia, New
Zealand, Canada. Each had their own particular reasons for desiring
our demise. And well we know, too, the radical infiltration that
had overtaken our own churches, academia and the media.

For many years we have strongly supported Inkatha - and still
do - a movement inspired by the many cruelties of the failed apartheid
system; by the sting and pain and humiliation of discrimination.
And, too, we supported the non-revolutionary blacks whose families
were so often the targets of unrestrained UDF-ANC-SACP terror.

RESERVATIONS

We applauded the SADF victories in Angola, but had deep reservations
about Pik Botha's 1984 Nkomati peace accord with Mozambique, seeing
this as of considerable benefit to Samora Machel and the ANC,
but presenting great security dangers for SA.

How did we deal with the De Klerk era? We regarded De Klerk as
a sellout and still do. Time and again we have given our reasons
for this. Our view was that de Klerk and his weakling government
were bending to US pressure to hand this country over to those
elements which would ensure that the NWO imperialists would, through
a weak, corrupt and incompetent ANC regime, dictate our future.

Many of our friends were generously prepared to give de Klerk
the benefit of the doubt. They hoped, as did most South Africans
then, that the ANC had shed its communist affiliations following
the impending dismemberment of once mighty USSR. We were not so
sanguine. We opposed the unbanning of the ANC/SACP, just as later
we opposed the 1992 referendum. Why? Blind anti-communism? Not
at all.

MOCK LEADER

We just did not trust de Klerk. We wrote that he was a mock leader
who had stolen the DP's policies; that as president he had botched
everything he touched; that we had been lied to throughout his
brief; that this untrustworthy man was now asking for a blank,
signed cheque enabling him to continue his secret, back-room deals
with the ANC/SACP. Of the referendum, we wrote: "De Klerk
says he wants an honest answer. We say give it to him - DON'T
be bluffed or propagandised, blackmailed or bamboozled".

De Klerk exacted his revenge. He attacked us by name in Parliament,
saying we were "misleading" and "misguiding"
the people. We were hit by a very dodgy donations tax bill, amounting
to hundreds of thousands of Rands, and intended to close us down.
It very nearly did. And, on his say-so, cancellations arrived
on our desk like confetti. It was a bad time. But, in the event,
who was "misleading" whom?

What we feared has duly come to pass: the effective installation
of a one party state, run by unreconstructed communists, ideologically
contaminated and virtually incapable of effective co-ordinated
action. Ignorance and inexperience masquerade as wisdom and responsibility.
Corruption and lawlessness masquerade as law and order; madness
as reason, violence as peace. Allied with it all, the deliberate
effort of the SABC and others to deculturise us, to project us
into a state of collective degradation.

SICK SOCIETY

We are indeed a sick society - "sick" to imply mental
sickness. And Mandela, Mbeki and the rest have the gall to talk
of "democracy". SA is today a country paralysed by its
leadership. As was the Soviet Union in its time, and as is the
Russia of today. The connection is obvious.

The conventional wisdom is that apartheid was an unrelieved calamity
for SA. But, as Simon Jenkins once remarked, apartheid did not
destroy. It may have been unfair - but it made SA rich. Without
a cent of foreign aid, apartheid took a moribund pastoral, agricultural
and mining economy, and transformed it into a manufacturing and
trading entity on world-scale. It made South Africa the most developed
nation in all Africa.

Again, the conventional wisdom is that this was all due to White
capitalism and the super-exploitation of Blacks. Perhaps some
of it was. Yet the fact remains that while the rest of Africa
was degenerating into pseudo-socialist chaos, out of the guts
and sweat of our people, Black and White, arose great industries,
shipyards, steel works, oil refineries, power stations, hospitals
with leading world techniques, great road and rail networks, advanced
telecommunications, great dams and huge water works.

That is the truth, and apartheid's historians will one day tell
it. It was sub-Saharan Africa's first and only Wirtschaftswunder,
success against great adversity.

VIRTUE STANDARD

Our position today is catastrophic. On the one side, the Afrikaans
bloodline, at this stage anyway, seems to have run out of greatness,
a people writing themselves out of history. On the other, we are
ruled by a regime which has for all practical purposes discarded
the virtue standard. In the ugliness which has surfaced, the work
ethic, thrift, self-reliance, lawfulness, honesty, truthfulness,
morality, idealism, fairness, integrity, altruism, pride, all
have, like our currency, been heavily devalued.

For a majority of the blacks, Mandela's many utopian promises
have turned into an Orwellian nightmare.

EGALITARIANISM

There are, unfortunately, no precedents to point the way for a
people who no longer accept any definition of right or wrong,
whose governing and educational bodies reject the idea of excellence,
who place a pathological emphasis on so-called egalitarianism.

The greatest threat we face now is the erosion of the best and
brightest to foreign emigration. We pray that those who leave
these shores will retain, at least for a few years, enough love
for their country to consider returning if we, by some miracle,
mend our ways.

So ... no, we are not more hopeful than we were in 1983. But even
in 1983, APN could see the writing on the wall. The difference
today, perhaps, is that the writing has vanished.

==============================================================

In the above article we have committed one unpardonable sin after
another against the holy doctrine of p.c. We have implied that
there is a difference between civilized manners, behaviour, customs
and aspirations and the other kind, that is, not civilised. We
have spoken of freedom in a way which implies that freedom embraces
more than the right to vote. We have suggested that real, and
even great progress, may occur in situations which, in many respects,
perhaps leave much to be desired: like colonialism, imperialism
- or apartheid.

Though we haven't said it in so many words, we do believe that
since the coming of van Riebeeck, this country progressed in every
way in which cognizant human beings recognise progress; more than
it had for all of human history before that time. We also believe
that unless South Africans admit that fact and try to keep that
progress going, we will soon find ourselves back to the days of
Harry the Strandloper.

Our readers might like to know how we, who have been so sceptical
of the benefits of "liberation" and have failed to fall
for pop "democracy", would actually define freedom.
I think Christian Bay expressed it well when he wrote: "A
person is free to the extent that he has the capacity, the opportunity
and the incentive to give expression to what is in him and to
develop his potentialities".

Freedom, therefore, means freedoms of various kinds. The vote
does not make free and, as the ANC is showing us, may actually
enslave. Ask Holomisa or any of those who have suffered because
they support the wrong party.

Civilisation then, to us, is the culmination of freedom and progress.
It widens man's choices, gives freer rein to his creative powers,
and makes possible a fuller realisation of his potentialities.
Whatever detracts from that purpose, in our book, moves us away
from civilization. That hurts.

==============================================================

CONGRATULATIONS !

WITH very rare exceptions APN does not generally publish personal
comment - especially flattering comment - on our work. You will
forgive us, however, if on this special occasion, we publish messages
of encouragement and goodwill received from around the world on
the occasion of our 200th issue. Due to APN's admittedly controversial
stance, specific identification of certain vulnerable individuals
must be withheld. Others who might well have chosen to keep their
identities confidential have authorised publication of their names.

First message to arrive came from a dear friend of many years
standing, Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, head of the Inkatha Freedom
Party and perhaps Africa's only living Black statesman. He writes:
"I would like to congratulate the Aida Parker Newsletter
on reaching this important milestone.

"APN has always been like a breath of fresh air in a room
where everyone is gasping for air because of the lack of sincerity,
fair play, truth and lack of objectivity suffered in the mainstream
SA press. There has been much blatant advocacy journalism in SA
in recent years.

"This is because of the intimidation that many journalists
suffered in the Eighties, particularly so after the emergence
of the UDF (United Democratic Front). For more details of events
then I refer those interested to the SA Institute of Race Relations
publication, Mau-Mauing The Media, written by John Kane-Berman.
This will give you an idea of the extent to which the media was
"taken over" in this country. There were also stories
of bribery, apart from intimidation.

So, if you did not favour the so-called 'armed struggle,' sanctions
and disinvestment, you gained only negative coverage from most
of SA's media.

That trend has worsened since the emergence of the 'New South
Africa. Should anyone doubt this, visit any newspaper library
and read how certain senior Black journalists have been subjected
to a bashing by the ruling party.

"It was a very wonderful thing that we managed to change
from the apartheid era to the New SA. However, we all know there
has been much blood-letting since the emergence of the UDF in
1984. That bloodshed continues even now between members of the
ANC and members of the IFP. Because of the so-called 'miracle
of the New SA,' these deaths, particularly the deaths of our IFP
members, are regarded as insignificant statistics, appearing merely
ass 'filler' in most of our media.

"Some facts about the reality have appeared in full only
in the Aida Parker Newsletter. It is in the interests of
truth and justice that APN should continue to do the great job
it has been doing over the years. That is why I have no hesitation
in wishing APN everything of the best. I do hope that those who
have supported it in the past will continue to support it, so
that the truth may be disseminated. I salute Miss Parker for her
courage and integrity in doing what she does."

A man who has done much to help APN along its rocky road is Theodore
Shackley, a Deputy Director of the CIA under George Bush. One
of America's legendary intelligence officers, especially during
the Vietnam War, he now heads up Research Associates International
in Washington. Typically, his message was short and sweet: "APN's
incisive reporting on history-making developments in South Africa
for 200 issues has earned our respect and admiration."

* * *

AND from another close friend, General Tienie Groenewald, former
head of SADF Military Intelligence and now a key leader of the
Freedom Front: "To compete with the electronic media, especially
TV, newspapers today can only survive by drawing big advertising
revenue. That means mass circulation and an inevitable dropping
of standards to draw the widest possible readership. Adlai Stevenson
once wryly remarked that newspaper editors are men who spend their
time sifting the wheat from the chaff, then publish the chaff.
The departure left a major credibility gap, which newsletters
quickly filled. APN has survived for two reasons. First, Aida,
with remarkable international experience, is a tireless researcher,
with a sharp eye and retentive ear. More importantly, her journalistic
ability and tenacity have kept APN going through many difficult
times. She has often been threatened and taken to court, but she
has never compromised her principles in the search for truth.
Congratulations, Aida, dear friend. May APN go on for ever. God
bless.

* * *

A very special friend and APN's main advisor on events in Israel
and the Middle East - Dan Nimrod, head of Dawn Publishing in Quebec,
Canada: "To Aida Parker, APN publisher, marking your 200th
issue of this remarkable, highly readable newsletter. Very few
of the many periodicals that have crossed my desk in the past
two decades have measured up in substance and depth to your front
line challenge. If and when the story of fighting journalism -
without bias or prejudice - is told, you will be counted among
the last Mohicans of a lost civilisation, facing the odds uprightly,
with courage and dignity. Yours in the struggle.

Dan Nimrod."

* * *

HILAIRE du Perier, who publishes his marvellous newsletter from
Monaco, has been a tower of strength to me over the years. Hilaire,
with an incredibly adventurous life behind him, has published
his newsletter since 1954. He is on all counts one of the most
courageous reporters of our time. A tribute from him is a tribute
indeed: "Aida, with each passing month you emerge more and
more as a rare South African heroine, crying 'Desist', to a distant
world which never understood that your people needed another 100
years of guidance before they could stand alone. For years I have
admired you more than any other woman I know. Your courage is
inspiring, in that world of which Conrad said: "In Africa
no depth of cruelty is unimaginable."

* * *

FROM Professor Eric Brodin, President, Foundation for International
Studies, North Carolina, USA: "Warmest congratulations on
achieving the 200th issue of your excellent newsletter. I think
back on the 23 years I have been privileged to know you, with
gratitude for the many things about Southern Africa I have learnt
from you. Over the years I have found APN so useful in my understanding
of SA, another ingredient in what I have learnt during my seven
visits over the years since 1973. While I have not always agreed
with everything, I have found much to learn from APN. As you have
succeeded with the 200th issue under often trying circumstances
over the years, may you be enabled and succeed in producing another
200 issued in the years to come."

* * *

FROM Robert Santamaria, publisher of the outstanding Australian
News Weekly, a very important voice in Australian publishing:
"Dear Aida ... I note that you are in course of preparing
APN No 200. It is no mean achievement. While the concentration
of the magazine has been on the internal affairs of South Africa
proper, its wider significance has been to draw attention to the
general tragedy associated with the decolonisation of Africa as
a whole. Decolonisation, apartheid, tribalism and similar concepts
are frequent subject matters for polite - and occasionally impolite
- controversy in Western society. Your contribution presents a
view which rarely appears elsewhere. For me, the underlying reality
is the unceasing tragedy which has been the fate of the many African
people. The changes supposed to usher in an era of freedom and
cooperation for Blacks and Whites in SA, to date at least, have
as yet fallen far short of their mark. I trust that you will keep
on reminding your readers of what is actually happening."

* * *

FROM Dr Ed Cain who heads up the big, Pretoria-based Christian
organisation, Signpost Publications and Research Centre. With
the friendship of Ed and his wife, Deanna, I am truly blessed:
"Congratulations, Aida, on your 200th edition. Despite all
the changes on the political scene, you have persevered, producing
a unique and vital newsletter. Many have tried to close you down,
but you have kept going and shamed us all with your courage and
faithfulness to the truths you hold dear. We who stand on the
sidelines and have watched the battles you have come through want
to cheer you on to the 300th edition! May the Lord bless and keep
you."

* * *

TWO of APN's most generous supporters, particularly so in our
efforts to help distressed Afrikaner primary school children,
are Los Angeles business executive Tony Longinotti and his wife,
Gay: "Words are inadequate for your great work. May you and
South Africa soon find peace."

* * *

DR RICHARD Martin, of Lucerne, Switzerland, with whom we have
worked for many years and who long ago foresaw the dangers of
a communist takeover of SA, with all this would mean to the West:
"Cordial congratulations on the occasion of the 200th issue
of APN. We admire your courage and perseverance. APN provides
essential information for South Africans, to understand the dangers
of communism and hopefully one day to help lead to a real democracy
in your beautiful country.:

* * *

FROM Donald Dareoch, now living in Benalla, Australia, and who
has for many years been a good friend, supported and advisor:
"It mast be some 20 years since we first met and I think
I was among the first of your subscribers. At any rate I have
read APN with great interest and am still amazed at how often
you have got things right. I have valued our talks - long distance
now - and meetings and look forward to these continuing. The rapid
changes in the world today make a voice of sanity more necessary
than ever before. Yours is such a voice. Keep up the good work.
There are few enough daring to print the truth today."

* * *

TWO of my most special friends in the US are Prince Michel Cantacuzene,
a member of the former Russian Royal family and who was himself
smuggled out of that country as a babe-in-arms during the height
of the Bolshevik Revolution, and his wife, Princess Pamela Cantacuzene.
Now living on Rhode Island in New York, they faxed: "Congratulations,
Aida. You keep us aware of the truth of what is really happening
in SA. Thank you, old friend, for the huge efforts you have made
for freedom."

* * *

A whole batch from Greece. One from an especially dear friend
now living on a Greek island, lucky thing - Ms Theo Sofianos:
"To everything there is a season, and a time to speak. May
you always speak out. So much is owed to you by so many. We
thank you dearly. Congratulations, APN."

* * *

One signed simply Iphigenia: "Congratulations, APN. To dear
and precious Aida, always the best and bravest. How grateful we
are." Another using the pseudonym: Neels Bitterender: "Congrats
on bicent. publication. Keep speaking up when other voices quaver.
Stand by the innocents when others fail them. You have the loneliest
job in town."

* * *

FROM two ladies who play a very big role in the production of
APN. Estelle Lombard, writing on behalf of the Executive Committee,
Action Save South Africa: "Congratulations on the 200th issue
of APN. Thank you for all your assistance and encouragement. May
you be around for another 200 issues."

And from Ann Forbes of Mega-SA: "In an era when political
expediency outweighs accuracy and compromise denies truth, APN
stands as a beacon, highlighting the realities confronting this
nation and indeed the world today. Written with integrity and
foresight, it retains its position in the forefront of SA journalism.
Viva, Aida."

From my long-time friend and medical advisor, Dr Barbara Boss:
"Congratulations on your 200th 'birthday.' For brute honesty
and colossal courage you take the cake. Warmest good wishes."

* * *

AND three messages which must of necessity remain anonymous:

"APN is the only publication in SA today which pulls no punches.
What a relief it is, after a month of reading The Daily Cringe,
to get my copy of APN in the mail. Without honesty, this country
will get nowhere. Courage, Aida."

"Congratulations to an honest and determined lady, a woman
who truly shows that gender is no barrier to brilliance and achievement.
I am grateful that throughout the storms you have been there for
us."

"APN should be compulsory reading for every politician and
bureaucrat in the 'New SA.' It is ideas that this country is short
on and APN is the only ideas paper available here. Aida can be
proud of her achievement."

THOUGH life is not always a walk in the park here, I am singularly
fortunate in my friends. One of the best is Julia Brueggeman,
of Seattle in the US. She writes: "Since sadly our own US
newspapers give such slanted news about what is really going on
in SA, I was delighted to discover your wonderful newsletter several
years ago. APN is truly a voice in the wilderness and I look forward
to its arrival each month. God richly reward you for your good
work."

* * *

And from Franklin Sanders, publisher of The Moneychanger,
based in Memphis, Tennessee and often quoted in APN: "Congratulations
on your 200th and may God give you 200 more! You have been a faithful
and brave warrior for the truth, for justice and for South Africa.
God bless you.

* * *

"HISTORICALLY, the accession to power by any one group is
accompanied by the humiliation of its predecessor. This is very
evident in South Africa today, with the indignities now being
heaped on the Whites, especially the Afrikaners, by an unrelenting
assault on all the values and traditions their civilisation holds
dear. What is mot needed in this predicament and struggle is perspective.
That you, and a tiny band like you, attempt to present.

Don't EVER give up. All good wishes on this special occasion in
your career." ATP.

And thank you, friends known and unknown, for making all of this
possible.

TWO LATECOMERS

TWO very late faxes arrived right on printing time, both from
very special friends. The one from a man to whom I have long been
a dedicated disciple: Brian Crozier, the great British strategist.
For his influence on my career, I owe him a tremendous debt of
gratitude. I was, I believe, one of the first journalists to enter
Angola when it was invaded by Holden Roberto's terrorist gangs
in the early Sixties.

What I knew then of Soviet-inspired revolution, subversion and
terrorism you could have written on the head of a pin. Returning
to SA, I obtained Brian's two masterly works on revolutionary
warfare: The Rebels and Strategy of Survival. Over
the coming years, as I covered revolutions in the Congo, Angola,
Mozambique, South West Africa, Rhodesia and, finally SA, those
books become my bibles. It was a sad time, watching as the Russians
and the Americans between them converted what had been the most
peaceful continent on earth into the violent, disease-and-poverty-stricken
slum it was to become.

HISTORIAN

Brian's message to APN: "I greet the 200th issue of the APN.
Nowhere else can I read the unadorned truth about South Africa.
Long may it and Aida Parker flourish. Brian Crozier from London."

The other message is from the renowned historian, Professor Leo
Raditsa, often referred to as America's answer to Paul Johnson.
Years before I was privileged to meet him, I knew of Leo as a
distinguished scholar of Mediterranean antiquity. He came into
my life when he visited SA to prepare one of the best books ever
written on SA's modern, revolutionary history, The Other End
of the Lifeboat.

At that time, few other commentators had noted the ridiculous
paradox: that, at precisely the moment that all of Eastern Europe
was ridding itself of communist dictatorship, South Africa alone
in the world had welcomed home SA Communist Party leaders, men
with an appalling record of violence and treason behind them.
Prisoners dealt with the 1982 hearings scheduled in Washington
by one-time Republican Senator Jeremiah Denton of Alabama.

Testimony heard before the Denton Committee on security and terrorism
in SA disclosed the existence of a strategy to seize power by
force and terror. The first tactic, of course, was to kill Black
South Africans who disagreed with the ANC strategy of revolution.
Naturally, the lib/left media here and abroad chose virtually
to ignore the hearings.

Prisoners is a book that deserved to be carefully studied
when it was first published: and even more so now. Above all,
it goes far to put into perspective much of the testimony now
being presented by SA security force officers, prostrating themselves
before Desmond Tutu's highly questionable Truth & Reconciliation
Commission, crying mea culpa, mea culpa.

SANCTIONS BILL

One of the most striking chapters in the book dealt with the campaign
against SA in the US: how popular anger against this country was
skilfully manipulated by various fronts, many of them using the
UN an their transmission belt. Even today few South Africans understand
that every provision of the vicious Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid
Act, the US sanctions bill which hit SA with everything short
of outright war and was passed over Reagan's veto, followed the
ANC programme to the letter. The ANC and its SACP masters could
well accept that it was indeed winning the "armed struggle"
- not in SA, but in Washington.

The views of Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a true Christian, a man
who profoundly hates violence and who saw the dangers inherent
in US sanctions, were rarely heard over the repressive roar of
Nelson Mandela's US media patrons. For the US media, then as now,
Buthelezi, the true democrat and peacemaker, was a non-person.
As Arnold Beichman once remarked, Mandela was the hero, Buthelezi
the anti-hero.

NAIVE ILLUSIONS

Above all, Prisoners was a book designed to shatter the
naïve illusions of unwitting dupes flaunting their dreams
while doing the work of the SA Communist Party. Such an event
was, naturally, not new. Think of Franklin Roosevelt's extraordinary
infatuation with Stalin, while knifing Churchill in the back.

Rereading the book now, it brings the whole wretched, carefully
manoeuvred tragedy back to life. The old South Africa was universally
portrayed as a "bandit state", yet it was a "new
European nation outside Europe." That no longer applies.
We have on our hands a parody of free institutions. And for that,
too, we can thank the Russians, the Americans and the Scandinavians.

Yet the West always knew where the ANC stood: that their great
hero, Mandela, had himself in the early Sixties made the ANC the
creature of the SACP. Sol Dubla, writing The South African
Communist, noted that "today the ANC and the SACP are
embraced in the common front of liberation." Nor has Mandela
- of whose real political affiliations little is known even now
- ever hesitated publicly to declare his loyalty and affiliation
with the SACP.

WORSE EVILS

There were, and are, worse evils than discrimination. South Africans
today are finding that out. All around us we can see the results
of the total abandonment of common sense, here and abroad.

One day the real history of this tragic, hideously betrayed country
will be written. Leo's book will then come into its own - a book
written by a brave American intellectual who dard swim against
the tide of unreason. You will understand that I have an immense
affection for Leo. His message to APN reads:

"You are at your 200th issue and APN's 13th birthday, both
too old and too young, like this time that feeds on illusion but
dares not hope. But unlike it you will not remain stuck: maturity
is a word I can say in your presence. At APN's birth, the
'top sergeant' mentality was strong enough in me to make me embarrassed
reading you. Who was this person who dared think with her own
head? And a South African!

"You show us the obvious we ignore because we dare not use
our eyes. And this in a time in which few can make any sense of
what is going on because everything that happens is so obvious.
You bring the strength out in us, not only in South Africa, for
the charade playing in South Africa betrays most obviously the
attempt to paralyse and destroy opposition going on throughout
the West. Only individual voices can resist this onslaught. Leo
Radisa, New York."

THE LATE, GREAT MR PALME

COCKEYED claims by disgraced apartheid-era SA security police
officers that former State President P W Botha somehow sanctioned
the 1986 assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme have
drawn worldwide attention: and brought two top Swedish cops to
SA to "investigate."Anything, of course, further to
damage and denigrate the wicked, wicked Boers.

As SA's orthodox media (surprise! surprise!) have seen fit tamely
to print these highly offensive defamations, we on APN decided
to do our own investigation into Palme. And most interesting it
has proved For decades this saintly Swede has been presented to
the world as an unsullied apostle of peace and international goodwill,
his heart full of goodness and sweetness. He was, indeed, posthumously
awarded India's Jawararlal Nehru Prize for promoting "world
peace and non-violence."

SOVIET STOOGE

An image, if truth be known, greatly at odds with the reality.

Passionately anti-Western and anti-capitalist, Palme was not only
a willing and eager Soviet stooge and one of the world's leading
supporters of radical-left terrorism/revolution but, to cap it
all, was one of the world's leading illicit arms salesmen to boot.

Conspiratorial theories about his murder abound. The only thing
that can be reported for certain is that the Swedish authorities,
police and government alike, have gone to desperate lengths over
the last decade to ensure that the truth does not surface. This
SA diversion must please them greatly.

Let's first look at Palme's various arms deals, notably that concluded
with his friend, Rajiv Gandhi, who was himself later assassinated:
an event many believed to be associated with the crooked Swedish
arms trade. In January 1986 Palme visited New Delhi, specifically
to pressure Gandhi into buying US$ 1,3 billion worth of Swedish
weaponry: 400 155 mm howitzers from AB Bofors, an ailing Swedish
armaments manufacturer.

Company officials later admitted that Bofors had sweetened the
deal with a commission totalling a cool US$50 million. Did Rajiv
Gandhi or officials close to him receive the commission? What
did Palme know about this payment? And when did he know it? Whatever,
one month after his meeting with Gandhi - and just as the sale
was being finalised - Palme was gunned down by persons unknown.

One official who might have shed light on the mystery is also
dead. Carl-Fredrik Algernon, chief of Sweden's Arms Exports Inspectorate,
had emerged as a key figure in various investigations into Bofors.
In January 1988, one day before he was due to testify in the Bofors
investigation, Algernon fell or, more likely, was pushed to his
death before an oncoming subway train at Stockholm's Central Station.
His death was listed as "accidental ... possibly suicide."
Few believe it.

ARMS SALES

Stockholm Country Police chief, Mr Hans Homer, later resigned
from the force, complaining that his investigations into the death
were being hampered by the prosecuting authority.

In personally negotiating the sale to India, was Palme simply
bending his well-known "principles" to accommodate Rajiv
Gandhi? Not at all. While mouthing peaceful sentiments, Palme
and the Swedes were energetically pushing arms sales to Third
World states that could ill afford them and should not get them.
Yet such sales were necessary. Sweden's own defence procurements
were too small for its big arms industry to survive without exports.
the Indian order guaranteed employment for 5 000 Bofors workers
for at least four years. The company threw a lavish champagne
party for all staff and their families the night the deal was
signed.

Other sales included: Arms to the Ayatollah Khomeini in Teheran.
Iran received nearly 1 000 RBS-70 anti-aircraft missiles plus
many other items routed to the Mid East through two Singapore
companies, Allied Ordnances of Singapore and Unicorn International.
Here's a twist. According to Sweden's Bureau of Statistics Singapore
- whose defence requirements are modest - was Sweden's biggest
weapons customer between 1977 and 1986.

REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS

It bought US$1,4 billion worth of arms, almost 11% of all Swedish
arms exports in that period. Missiles were only part of the story.
In 1983, with Palme in office, Sweden's shipbuilding firm of Boghammer
Marin diverted some 40 speedboats to the Iranian Coast guard,
an order reportedly worth some US$9,5 million. The boats, capable
of speeds up to 50 knots, were used by the Iranian Revolutionary
Guards to harass and attack oil tankers and other shipping in
the Gulf, including Swedish-owned supertankers.

Sweden's War materials Inspectorate later investigated charges
that these speedboats were modified for military purposes by Boghammer
Marin before delivery to Iran. Further, more than 400 tons of
explosives were sold to Iran by Sweden's Nobel Kemi Co, through
Italy, Austria, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, according to Swedish
Customs. They stated that the company made US$67 million on that
deal. Like Bofors, Nobel Kemi is a subsidiary of Nobel Industries
founded by Alfred Nobel, of Peace Prize fame.

But the big kicker to this story is that Palme, "the peacemaker,"
all this time had been assigned by the UN to mediate in the protracted
Iranian/Iraqi war. Some peacemaker.

So, what do we have here? Evil capitalists defying the law in
the interests of fat profits? Hardly. Avowed socialist Olof Palme
was involved in all these deals up to his armpits. Is it beyond
the realms of possibility that the Iraqis, whose forces were destined
to be at the receiving end of this Swedish hardware, could have
decided to give the Great Peacemaker a helping hand into the next
world?

CAUGHT RED-HANDED

And don't think plenty of people in Europe didn't know what was
going on. In 1984 the Danish seamen's union asserted that arms
were being carried from Sweden to Iran in Danish ships - and claimed
they had the documentation top prove it. Other evidence was surfacing.

Western intelligence agencies had been keeping tabs on illegal
weapons trafficking by one Karl-Erik Schmitz. In June 1985 Swedish
Customs confiscated 50 tons of explosives originating from Bofors,
leading to a raid on Schmitz' office in Malmo soon thereafter.
Schmitz was put on trial. Many at the time claimed that the fact
that Schmitz was caught red-handed in this arms trafficking led
to Palme's assassination. The allegations went on.

In February 1992, in an interview in Dagens Nyheter. a Bofors
executive confirmed that his company had paid a US $50 million
bribe to Indian officials including, it was suggested, the late
Rajiv Gandhi. The unnamed Bofors executive said he "still
wondered every day if there was a connection between the Palme
murder and the sale to India.'

SCANDAL

Two years ago, 25.2.94, The italian daily Corriera della Sera,
published an article "Weapons and Bribes: The Palme Mystery",
dealing with the release of "hundreds of banking documents
on the sale of the Bofors cannon to India." The fact that
the Swiss banks had decided to release their banking documents
had, it said, "triggered an international scandal, which
the Swedish authorities, at all levels, have tried to avoid for
years".

Let's now go back to the evening of 28.2.86, when, at about 11.30
p.m., Palme was shot and killed as he and his wife Lisbeth, walked
away from the Grand Theatre in Stockholm. There, with the second
of their three sons, Marten, they had seen a Swedish comedy, The
brothers Mozart, After parting from Marten, the Palmes - without
bodyguards, at his wish - were heading towards his home in Stockholm's
Old Town, a neighbourhood about 15 minutes away. Now they come
under attack by a lone gunman. One bullet entered Palme, killing
him instantly. A second bullet grazed his wife's back. It was
the first political slaying in Sweden since the killing of King
Gustav III at a masked ball in 1792.

ROTHSCHILD

Reports at the time claimed that Palme was having an affair with
British/American millionairess Emma Rothschild and that it could
have been through this that his movements were monitored. One
police theory was that the assassin and his back-up could have
gained knowledge about Palme's movements by tapping her phone.

One report claimed that Swedish detectives were seeking to interview
Emma Rothschild when they received instructions from high places
not to pursue this line of enquiry. Palme's alleged affair with
Emma Rothschild was, according to political sources, "a public
secret" in Stockholm, in government, diplomatic and media
circles.

Ten months after the killing, at least 12 top detectives investigating
the case resigned. According to a Swedish intelligence source,
police claimed "political pressure" was being exerted,
to block progress of the investigations. The Swedish government,
it was claimed, was "terrified" of the international
consequences should the police name the assassin and "reveal
the forces behind him."

ANGOLAN DIAMONDS

Particularly mentioned here was that Palme had been instrumental
in helping an alleged Russian KGB agent, Polish-born Jacob Leizer
Chanow, to set up a trade route for Angolan diamonds, so defrauding
the SA diamond giant, De Beers, and threatening its pricing cartel.
After the resignation of the detectives, it was disclosed that
the Swedish police had uncovered a connection between Palme and
Jacob Chanow. While it was not claimed that Palme knew that Chanow
was a KGB agent, it was reported that Palme assisted him in making
contacts in a number of international deals, including the marketing
of the Angolan diamonds.

It as repeatedly claimed at the time that Swedish police chief
Hans Homer knew who the assassin was: and the identity of the
group which ordered the killing. This would seem a probability.
On 24.8.1989 the popular Swedish newspaper, Expressen,
carried a front-page banner headline, "Soviets Knew Palme
Was To be Murdered." The article reported that named members
of SAPO, the Swedish secret police, had taped a conversation of
a Swedish-based Soviet diplomat, suspected of being a KGB agent,
the night before Palme was assassinated.

ADVANCE KNOWLEDGE

It claimed that careful analysis of the transcripts had convinced
some SAPO officials that the Soviets had advance knowledge of
the plan to murder Palme: and that the official mainly responsible
for translating the tapes had concluded that the Soviets had "both
initiated and carried out the assassination." A sensational
claim about a high-focus political killing? Certainly, But, strangely,
not one of the top Western "liberal" media chose to
print it, though it was carried by The Washington Times.

One of the few public comments on the matter came from Zdzizlaw
Rurarz, former Polish Ambassador to Japan, who said it was widely
suspected in diplomatic circles that the USSR had had a hand in
Palme's murder. Why? Because the Russians feared he had switched
his loyalties to the CIA.

And if you think that is the end of the Palme scandals, think
again. Palme was born in 1927, into a aristocratic family. Ironically,
it seems that he became radicalised while studying at Kenyon College
in Ohio. He returned home from the US a dedicated socialist, an
ideologue of epic proportions, bitterly opposed to capitalism,
which he claimed created a society of "egoism and sharp elbows."

Joining the ruling Social Democratic Party (SDP), he was soon
elevated to Cabinet status, as Minister of Education. As such,
in 1969 he angered the US when he joined the North Vietnamese
Ambassador to Moscow on a Stockholm demonstration against US involvement
in Vietnam. In 1969 he was elected SDP leader, and then premier.
Once in office, he placed Sweden firmly on the anti-Western side.

Second only to Moscow, Sweden became the most generous supporter
of the Vietcong, in 1979 sending US$200 million to Hanoi. He became
very friendly with Boris Ponomarev, head of the International
Department of the CPSU. Again, after the USSR, he became the second
most generous financial fairy godfather to Castro, being received
later as a hero in Havana. Nor did he neglect Allende's Marxist
regime in Chile or any other Latin American trouble spot.

SUBVERSION CENTRE

Gradually, he converted Sweden into an international subversion
centre and the main Soviet line of infiltration into the West.
In 1973 he accepted 170 Uruguayan Tupamaro terrorists: by 1979
thousands of Soviet- and Cuban-trained Latin American Marxist
revolutionaries were resident in Sweden: 410 Argentineans, 397
Bolivians, 492 Brazilians, 2 411 Chileans, 344 Colombians, 214
Peruvians, 732 Uruguayans. By the beginning of 1980 there were
more than 70 Latin American leftwing extremist organisations active
in Sweden.

Also enjoying Swedish hospitality were members of Germany's Baader-Meinhoff
gang and the Red Army Faction; Italy's Red Brigade; Abu Nidal's
terrorist organisation; The ANC and Swapo; the Turkish PKK group;
Sikh and Basque separatists; the radical Kurdish Workers Party,
pressing for a Kurdish homeland, and many more. To Britain's intense
irritation, Palme also allowed the IRA to use Sweden as a base
for its operations in the UK and Ulster.

So there you have it. The CIA, MI6, the KGB, the Germans, the
Iraqis, the Argentineans, General Pinochet, De Beers - and now
P W Botha and the old SA Security Police - all in their time have
been suspects in the Palme killing and its complex cover-up. Nor
should it be overlooked that Sweden's own SDP was also on this
list, with suggestions that the then-ruling party would have been
only too happy to rid itself of an increasingly embarrassing political
liability.

RESERVATIONS

So who do you think was the guilty party? Who knows ...
except that P W Botha trails very, very far along at the bottom
of the line. Knowing P W I have the greatest reservations about
his involvement in this or any other murder. So: no suspect, no
motive, no murder weapon. This despite the whopping award the
Swedish authorities offered for information leading to an arrest:
50 000 Kronor, or $9 million in 1986 US dollars. Was the reward
put at that figure, the Swedes well knowing there was little if
any chance of it ever being claimed?

================================================================

UNDERCOVER EXCELLENCE

There are spies and spies.

This enigmatical assertion is amply borne out if one bends an
ear to our electronic media where one spy stands out, literally
that is, from the rest: Craig Williamson is always a SUPERSPY.

And somehow, SUPERSPIES, unlike Parktown prawns, do not have to
bear the sinister ignominy of their undergrown co-workers.

SUPERSPIES have qualities which, if not exactly exemplary, exude
a certain romance. And among those who move in workerist circles
- as they do in their interminable 'workshops' - romance is a
quality much in demand, and understandably so, especially by the
drab feminists who toil there.

But why does the notorious Craig Williamson, and he alone, qualify
for this distinction? APN's guess is that Williamson's single-handed
penetration of the conspiracy within the Geneva-based International
University Exchange Fund, an organisation which, as Deputy Director,
he effectively ran for several years, is what earned him this
the rare accolade. In its time the IUEF, largely Swedish supported,
acted as an important communist front - and a major funder to
the ANC/SACP.

One hardly dares mention it, of course, but could it be that the
Communists look back in awe at the efficiency which he brought
to the IUEF while he was in charge?

Perhaps, looking back, we should all be sorry that Craig blew
his cover. If he'd stayed on, the ANC would have had at least
one cabinet minister who knew what he was doing.

==============================================================

MUGGED BY MBEKI

Transparency is a word frequently to be found near the
lips of our new masters. It is perfectly understandable. Whenever
political interest groups come newly to power, whether through
the vote or by less conventional means, such as aggressive foreign
intervention or revolution - or as in South Africa's case, the
two combined - the greatest challenge the newcomers face is that
of convincing the people, and the world, of their noble antecedents,
unblemished record, meritorious intentions, purity of soul and
selfless dedication.

ORCHESTRA OF SWINDLERS

To make this unlikely symphony sound sweetly melodious to the
masses, the orchestra of swindlers, charlatans and wind-bags and
know-nothings (to err on the side of generosity), who take up
their fiddles (if the pun can be pardoned) always proceed from
the assumption that the public is composed entirely of tone deaf
cretins who will bear any discomfort, sustain any insult or injury,
in silence in the interests of political tranquillity.

It always works for a while. Then the truth begins to ooze out.
The villainous crew untune their instruments and project a discordant
cacophony at those daring to expose the fraud.

Dr Roland, till very recently MD of Sappi Saiccor, is presently
the target of the loudest brass. Like those who in their day amplified
the media campaign against the Nationalists in their day, projecting
the views of its critics on to the international screen, he has,
with remarkably similar intent, moved to mobilise international
opinion with the object of forcing reform on the present government.
His point is that unless the ANC/SACP alliance does something
to scotch incipient anarchy, the tranquillity which we so deeply
desire will be the quiet of the grave.

COULD FOOL US

What a pity, then, that the most likely result of his efforts
will be a still further diminution of press reports on crime and
government corruption and incompetence. And what a pleasure it
will be for Mr Thabo Mbeki, the gentleman who "fears"
that any suggestion of anarchy "could deter foreign investment".

I find it extraordinary that the US Information Service, which
laboured so diligently to help bring this miserably incompetent
ANC/SACP regime to power - even establishing a library in Soweto
some 20 years ago, including 600 helpful books on the French Revolution
- was responsible for alerting Mbeki to the Mazery initiative.

Most stunning of all was the comment from Mbeki's spokesman, one
Thami Ntenteni. He said that the Mazery campaign "makes it
look like there isn't an effective government in South Africa."

You could have fooled us.

Season's bleatings

The Church of England says it's time we all had a very Unmerry
Christmas

OH, dear. I note that the Christian faith in which I, like millions
of others, was raised - the church of England - is at it again.
Desperately trendy as is their wont, the Lambeth Fathers, woolly
dogooders all, have decided in their ecclesiastical wisdom to
abolish the idea of Happy

Christmas. Instead, according to the London Daily Mail,
the former restive season is to be known - wait for it! As "a
bad hair day." The Mail outlines this latest brilliant
example of Anglican enlightenment:

"The phrase - Bad Hair Day?' - will be used on posters, T-shirts,
radio and possibly television in an extraordinary Christmas advertising
campaign intended to attract more young people into services.
One poster proclaims: "Bad hair day?! You're a virgin, you've
just given birth, and now three kings have shown up.' Underneath,
in small print, is the message: 'Find out the happy ending at
a church near you.'

MEAN TO SHOCK

"The church's advertising men, with the backing of the Archbishop
of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, admit they mean to shock. One
said: 'Peace and goodwill to all has had a good run. That message
has got home. It's time for something else.' The idea has already
been roundly condemned by traditionalists inside the Church.

"Clerics who helped draw up the Churches' Advertising Network
campaign - being supported by the Roman Catholic and free churches
- say they want to overturn the 'safe and comfortable' idea that
Christmas is a time of happiness and celebration. They want to
emphasise how unpleasant it must have been for the Virgin Mary
to give birth in a stable and to draw parallels with the poor,
the homeless and refugees today.

"It means in effect that the Church - which this summer abandoned
Hell by a vote of the General Synod - has now turned its back
on the traditional culture of its most popular festival. Advertising
'creatives' behind the campaign believe 'bad hair day' is such
contemporary slang it will appeal to youngsters who find the traditional
message too staid. One of the team, John Griffiths, said: 'Church
advertising has been safe and a bit preachy. We wanted to change
the tone.'

FATUOUS

"He added: 'We have to be very cautious about trendy advertising.
We wouldn't want to say something three years out of date like
'Christmas is wicked.' Mr Griffith said 'bad hair day' had become
current only recently and had only just begun to reach the newspapers.
"It is not a phrase that came in three movies ago."

As The Mail points out, the fatuous Mr Griffiths with his
kitschy phrases, is wrong. 'Bad hair day' first appeared in a
British newspaper five years ago. A new version of Chambers 21st
Century Dictionary, published last month, describes it as 1990s
Californian teenage slang, meaning "a feeling of slight depression
when you would rather stay at home than face the world."
It has been used in shampoo advertisements.

The Mail concludes: "The new campaign's supporters
admit that some bishops and clergy who have seen it are unimpressed.
Ely vicar Tom Ambrose said: "There has been some concern,
but people who object cannot put their finger on shy." The
Archdeacon of York, George Austin, said: "I can put my finger
on what is wrong with it. Bad taste."

Let's pause to allow the richness, the ripeness, of modern Anglican
thinking to sink in. The campaign does, of course, represent some
sort of victory for that demented ecclesiast, David Jenkins, former
Bishop of Durham. I think it was at the 1986 General Synod that
this famed publicity hound opined that the Anglican Church would
benefit by injecting more "whoopee" (his word, not mine)
into its overall approach.

For years Jenkins regularly hit the headlines by seeking to demolish
both the Bible and key parts of the Christmas story. He insisted
that Jesus Christ was not "the saviour of men," that
all the church's most cherished stories of Christmas were myths.
He questioned the story of "no room at the inn," and
the stars guiding the Three Wise Men. He shot down their gold,
frankincense and myrrh and even the swaddling clothes and the
manger at Bethlehem. speaking of the BBC, 24.12.93, he informed
the listening public it was "all poetical myth."

In many other ways too the long-suffering congregations of this
seriously ailing church have suffered from change-hungry prelates.
They have seen some very strange ladies ordained as priests -
and listened to some of them demand that God be addressed as "She."
They have seen guitars and rock music in their cathedrals, with
insane vicars prancing around in the aisles: what the Bishop of
Chester once called "raves in the nave."

More recently we have seen the widespread introduction of the
"no outcasts" policy, with the liturgical solemnisation
of homosexual "marriages." Latest example of church
PA (politically absurd): in some dioceses, it is being recommended
that the words "husband" and "wife" fall into
disuse, because these might offend the delicate sensibility of
married homosexuals.

Isn't that progress? Who could want a better church? Please pray
for the Anglican Church.

ATTENTION DR ZUMA

"ABORTION is essentially a moral issue, just as slavery
was. Both revolve around the value we attach to human life. Entire
civilisations lived with slavery for centuries, but ultimately
its inescapable immorality had to be recognised and the political
consequences accepted whatever the cost. (In the USA in the 19th
century) a powerful case for slavery could be, and was, made,
and enforced by the huge special interests which had grown up
around it. Time and again the subject bubbled to the surface,
and subsided again as yet another compromise was thrown over it.

"It seemed in everyone's interests to avoid a showdown.
But the issue was morally too important for that. It would not
go away and in the end it involved the United States in a war
which killed a million people and destroyed a society and way
of life for ever. The price America had to pay was enormous but
Americans decided it had to be paid. Today it is hard to find
any American, even in the South, who would not agree that slavery
had to be ended, even at the cost of a civil war.

"Slavery was tolerable only when it was shrouded in ignorance,
euphemism and deception. The more you knew about its realities,
the more its ugly facts were uncovered, the higher the gorge rose.
The decisive moment in America came when Harriet Beecher Stowe,
in Uncle Tom's Cabin, brought the horrible essence of slavery
home to millions. The case against abortion has yet to find its
Harriet Beecher Stove. Bit it will.

"It is notable that every time the truth about the nature
of abortion breaks the surface - as it did in the case involving
the killing of a twin - more and more people, including doctors,
themselves, ask questions about the morality of the whole evil
business." - Paul Johnson, The London Spectator,
17.8.96.

WHITE HOUSE WATCH

WITH only days to go before US voters go to the polls, APN
asked our Washington representative to provide us with a last-minute
wrap-up of the Presidential elections. He writes: Historically,
US presidential elections are won on domestic pocket book issues.
The old Southern adage, "the catfish are jumping and the
living is easy" is in full flower in Bill Clinton's Democratic
Party campaign headquarters.

Bolstered by a remarkably strong economy, most americans are
better off today than they were four years ago at the start of
the Clinton administration. this means that more than half US
households have video cassette recorders, colour TVs and air conditioners.
A growing number have personal computers, cellular telephones
and home telefax machines. More than 90% of all households have
a car: and 40% have two or more cars.

In other words, despite high levels of crime and social decay,
most Americans still enjoy levels of prosperity way above those
found in any other country. In this climate of contentment, Clinton
has benefited hugely from the reluctance of Americans to concern
themselves too deeply with his failings. Those realities explain
why Clinton is currently 10%/15% ahead of the Republican challenger,
Robert Dole, in most political polls.

Despite serious character flaws - womanising and a fleeting
acquaintance with the meaning of truth -Clinton is a master politician:
On the key political issues of the day, he is where the polls
say he should be. He favours less government but not that much
less. Less Government spending is good, providing no one gets
hurt. He supports women staying longer in hospitals after giving
birth. He favours everyone having health insurance and he supports
strong family leave laws.

Gun control is high on his agenda but it has to be accomplished
so anyone who wants to hunt or shoot a prowler entering a bedroom
at night can do so. Most important, he can feel the electorate's
pain, no matter what issue brings tears to their eyes. Add to
that package glib world-class oratical skills. One can then understand
why, though Americans tell pollsters they don't trust Clinton,
they will vote for him. Character as an issue in US presidential
politics is undergoing its death rattle thanks to the man Arkansas
politicians call Slick Willie.

Bob Dole, a decent man, war hero and an able legislator, as
he repeatedly proved in a distinguished career in the Senate,
seems unable to capture the public's imagination as he pursues
his Presidential aspirations for the third time. Dole does not
come through as "Mr Congeniality." Most of his support
is either from hard-nosed Republican loyalists or those who support
him solely due to their antipathy to Clinton. That gives Dole
an electoral basis of 40% of those registered to vote.

The Clinton/Dole debates did little to close the gap. Dole
did well in the structural forum of the give and take, giving
a sound lesson in both civics and civility. Unfortunately Middle
America, the "Joe Six Pack" vote, was not listening.
That was a disaster for Dole, for it is in middle America that
swing voters can be found and converted to his vision of less
government, less taxes, reduction of the federal deficit, a more
aggressive war on drugs and a foreign policy focused on natural
interests rather than social engineering.

Heading down the stretch toward November 5, Dole must forget
the popular vote as such. What requires his attention is the electoral
college vote which is gained by obtaining a majority of the popular
vote in a given state. It takes 270 electoral college votes to
gain the Presidency. Dole could thus craft a strategy of dividing
the electoral map into three categories. The first: 16 states
with 135 electoral votes where the core of the Republican Party's
voter base is located. Then he needs to zero in on "must
win" states such as Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky,
Colorado, Nevada and Arizona to gain another 77 electoral votes.

If Dole has these 23 states in his pocket on election night,
he would have 212 votes, which is 68 short of the goal. To pick
up the shortfall, Dole has to win in Ohio, Michigan, Louisiana,
Connecticut, Iowa and Montana. Unfortunately, Clinton is ahead
in these states at this time. Thus, even an electoral college
strategy is no formula for a sure win for Dole.

In short, black clouds hover over Republican presidential aspirations.
The odds heavily favour joy prevailing in the "Slick Willie"
camp on November 5. Dole supporters can expect nothing better
than black crepe draped over their hopes and dreams unless a last-minute
sea change in political attitudes occurs in the electorate.

IMPEACHMENT? Bill Clinton may be riding high right now, but
he is still sitting on a barrel of dynamite. Lord Rees-Mogg, former
editor of the London Times, believes Clinton will probably
be "Watergated" in his second term of office - "That's
what happened to Nixon, and I think it can happen again."
Republican Dr Jack Wheeler writing in the high-priced US newsletter,
Strategic Investment, thinks the same. He discloses that
two months ago a high profile delegation of Democrats, led by
Ted Kennedy, called on Clinton and told him to stand down.

"He had a purple fit and told them to stick it. Then for
good measure he sent a message to Ken Starr (Watergate special
prosecutor), the clear implication of which was: 'If you indict
Hillary or me, you'll end up like Vince Foster or Ron Brown.'

After intimidating Starr out of the way, Slick thinks it's
clear sailing for a second term - but he could soon run into an
implacable foe, the man determined that his second term will be
in the Big House, not the White House.

"That man is Congressman Dan Burton (Rep-Indiana). One
of Burton's colleagues told me: 'Bill Clinton better pray he loses
in November, because then he can retire from politics gracefully,
like Carter. But if he wins, we're going to impeach him. We are
simply not going to put up with this crooked bastard any more.
We're going to put him and his crooked wife behind bars - and
that's a promise.'"

Wheeler says that the chairman of the previous Congressional
investigative committee, Richard Clinger, "did not have the
stomach to find and expose the truth about Vince Foster. But Burton
will. Not only about Foster, but Cattlegate, Filegate, Waco, Ruby
Ridge, Louis Freeh's conversion of the FBI into a criminal organisation,
Paula Jones, Karen Ferguson and especially Larry Parks. Count
on it.

"It has been almost 100 years since Emile Zola wrote his
famous letter, J'accuse. Zola accused French President
Faur of corruption and anti-Semitism regarding the Dreyfus affair.
I accuse President Clinton of murder, specifically of ordering
his personal goon squad of Arkansas State troopers and ex-troopers
to kill Larry Parks.

"A Little Rock private investigator, Parks was hired by
Vince Foster to collect an extensive surveillance file on then-Governor
Clinton from 1984 to 1990, which included Clinton's participation
in a number of cocaine and sex parties at his brother Roger's
apartment at the Vantage Point Apartments, the manager of which
was Park's wife Jane. British journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
has now discovered who asked Foster (who had done business with
Park's security firm since 1981) to hire Parks to spy on Governor
Bill. Yes, it was Hillary.

"A few days after Foster was murdered, July 20, 1993,
Parks' file of photos, tapes and notes on Clinton was burgled
from his home. Two months later, September 28, Clinton's hit men
pumped nine bullets into Parks' chest in broad daylight on a Little
Rock street corner. Two eye witnesses saw an Arkansas State Trooper
leaving the scene of the crime.

"I accuse the President of the United States of knowing
complicity in this murder. Dan Burton will investigate this murder
and many others, all they way to the end. If Slick is put on trial
for Foster or Parks or Ferguson or others (the list is long) and
is found guilty, I say give him the chair."

All that depends, of course, on whether the Republicans retain
their majority in Congress: but it does reflect the deep unhappiness
man Americans feel about their very dodgy President.

* * *

WHEELER seems obsessed with getting Clinton impeached, but
this in itself would entail huge dangers both for the US and the
West generally. What happens if US voters, having re-elected Clinton
to a second term, then find out the truth about their man? The
distinguished US Black economist and conservative, Thomas Sowell,
provides the possible answer: "Not only would that be demoralising
to the country ... it could lead to a paralysis of government
as impeachment proceedings tie up both the Congress and the White
House.

"Worst of all, it could make Al Gore (the ultra-liberal
former Senator from Tennessee) President. I have long believed
that the best way to deter assassination attempts against Clinton
would be to publicise Vice President Gore's political record.
A man who twice beat out Ted Kennedy for the title of the biggest
spender in the Senate is bad enough. A man whose hysterical book
about the environment was found heavily marked up in the Unabomber
suspect's cabin (alleged terrorist Ted Kaczybski) is worse. Al
Gore hardly represents 'the end of the era of big government'
that Clinton talks about.

"He represents the same expansion of government that Clinton
represents, only more so. The more you hate Clinton - as millions
do - the more you should want him to remain safe and sound, for
Al Gore is politically even more of the same. Clinton's defeat
at the polls ... might help us to remember that American values
are the opposite of the values of this tawdry crowd in the White
House."

OTHER analysts, too, agree that if America does ever say hello
to President Gore, it could trigger the greatest financial collapse
in 20 years. Wrote one analyst in The Wall Street Journal:
"It would shock the markets. When Nixon finally resigned
the Dow plunged 45% from its peak in 1973. Incredible fortunes
will be lost (and gained)."

* * *

ALMOST all commentators agree that what our US correspondent
terms "the climate of contentment" would be the major
factor behind any Clinton victory. But is this truly a season
of economic celebration in the US? Any serious analysis of the
US economy suggests not: that there are instead great gaping holes
in this "success" story. As investment advisor J A Davidson
points out in Strategic Investment, "You don't have
to be a conservative, a liberal or even interested in politics
to understand that America must (sooner or later, bur probably
in the next few years) be flattened by a tidal wave."

He points out that at the end of 1994, the US federal debt
- the one politicians and the media talk about - stood at US$4,6
trillion, and going straight up. But not factored into this figure
are the trillions more in government debt that is "off the
books." That represents the unfunded obligations of the federal
government: Medicare, military, governments and old age pensions;
retiree health; social security, insurance and other liabilities.
Thus, total federal liabilities - stand at a prodigious US$17,4
trillion.

Davidson comments: "Were the US Government a private corporation,
it would be required to have that pension money on fixed deposit.
Any company acting as the US Government has done would be charged
with fraud." And if the US Government fails to meet its obligations?
"Either the government will be forced to default on its obligations
like old age pension, health care and military pensions. Or it
will pay everything in full - with worthless money."

* * *

THE US financial system is therefore essentially extremely
fragile. And it faces plenty of other quicksands and mudholes.
Graphs show that the US economy has been in a 25-year downslide,
a creeping, managed, unacknowledged depression since 1971. The
last year that the US exported more than it imported was 1975.
The last US financial trade surplus was 1981.

Since 1985 the US has steadily devalued the $ to encourage
US exports. In 1992 the US merchandise deficit was US$84 billion
- and climbing fast. Some 65% of Americans have no savings for
retirement. Those who do have savings have far too little. Average
financial assets per household are less than $15 000. Even Clinton
is beginning to understand the moral corrosiveness of high welfare
addiction.

No wonder US News & World Report comments that "yuppies"
in the US are gradually being replaced by "Dumpies"
(Destitute, Unprepared Mature People).

* * *

NOT only is the US staggering under a colossal debt burden,
but also an accumulation of frightful social problems. Senator
Daniel Moynihan, a Democrat, is one of America's most acute
social analysts. He has long since warned that "a profound
and disastrous social crisis is under way in America, one that
the nation, unwilling to confront, pretends is not happening.
Behaviour and events once regarded as wholly unacceptable, as
deviations from civilised norms, are gradually being accepted
as a normal part of life in this country.

"Crime is the most obvious example of this, but the statistical
evidence for a developing social disaster includes teenage pregnancy
and suicide; the break up of families; murders by primary school
children; guns in the schools and senseless gun violence everywhere;
the rapid spread of AIDS; sexual abuse of children; battering
of women; an exploding jail population; drug abuse and homelessness."

MANY wonder: Just why is Clinton such an unreconstructed sleazeball?
Bob Santamaria, of the Australian News Weekly, has his own theories
on this ... on why the Clintons represent perhaps the lowest ethical
standards ever seen in the White House. He points out that these
are "Baby Boomers - essentially products of the 'Swinging
Sixties,' Their orthodoxies were those of the Vietnam protest
movement, the drug culture, the Beatles, Woodstock, Janis Joplin,
Rudi Deutsche, the whole 'let it all hang out' period.

"Their minds were shaped by the familiar Marxist delusions,
including the universal right to abortion as the hallmark of
women's freedom, homosexual rights, radical feminism, environmentalism
a pantheist substitute for Christianity. Taught to momentary desires,
their essential nihilism made them the generation least fitted
to govern a country now faced with problems of an intensity not
previously encountered.

"Taught also to believe that the liberal capitalist culture
of the US was morally corrupt, conceivably worse than that of
Soviet communism, that principled opposition to communism was
merely

McCarthyism, their complexes deprived them of firm principle for
the exercise of power in international relationships."

* * *

JUDGE Robert Bork, one of the better known victims of the US "democratic"
system, recently recalled that he taught Bill and Hillary Clinton
when they were at Yale - "Let me rephrase that. Bill and
Hillary were in the room when I was teaching at Yale." Asked
why so many Americans hate Clinton, Bork replied: "Because
he deserves it."

* * *

The 23rd Qualm

Bill Clinton is my Shepherd, whom I do not want.

He maketh many lies about Green pastures.

He leadeth me beside the still factories.

He restoreth my doubt about the Democratic Party.

He leadeth me in the path of Socialist for his name's sake.

Yes, I will walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Debt,

And I will fear much evil, for he is with me.

And Hillary Rodham and her staff hey discomfort me.

He preparest a tax hike for me

To give presents to mine enemies.

He anointed my wages with inflation so that my

Expenses run over my income.

Surely Poverty and Hard Times shall follow me

All the days of his administration,

And I will dwell in a rented HUD house forever.

- the US Republican Party publication, Political Leadership.

PUBLISHER'S LETTER

FOR whatever reason, Health Minister Dr Zuma so desperately eager
to protect us from smoking is equally keen to poison or mentally
incapacitate us by fluoridating the nation's metropolitan water
supplies. This month I had intended publishing a summary of a
major treatise on this, The Fluoride Fiasco, written by
Dr Gary Null, Ph.D., and published in the US journal, The Townsend
Letter for Doctors & Patients.

However, our schedule went adrift when letters and faxes of congratulations
on the 200th issue of APN began rolling in. Studying these, we
decided that if friends were thoughtful enough, kind enough, to
congratulate us on this special occasion, it was up to us to return
the courtesy by publishing their messages of goodwill. After all,
a centenary issue is only marked every 6 ½ years.

We will accordingly deal with the Null article in much greater
depth in our next issue. However, as this is a subject of the
most vital importance to the public health, and due to come before
Parliament quite soon, probably in the next session, I thought
we should deal with some of the points made now. Dr Null opens
with this telling paragraph:

"There's nothing like a glass of cold, clear water to
quench one's thirst. But the next time you or your child reach
for one, you might want to question whether that water is in fact
too toxic to drink. If your water is fluoridated, the answer may
well be yes."

He continues: "For decades, we have been told a lie, a lie
that has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans
and the weakening of the immune systems of millions more. This
lie is called fluoridation. A process we were led to believe was
a safe and effective method of protecting teeth from decay is
in fact a fraud. In recent years it has been shown that fluoridation
is neither essential for good health nor protective of teeth.
What it does is poison the body. We should all at this point be
asking how and why public health policy and the American media
continue to perpetuate this scientific sham." We might
well ask the same questions of the same people in SA.

We have little time left to lodge protest against this blatant
ANC attack on the national health. The paper was given to me by
a prominent pharmaceutical manufacturer, who has kindly also supplied
sic photostat copies. We will happily give these to anyone preparing
to submit a protest on this matter to either Dr Zuma or the Department
of Health. If you wish for a copy, get in touch with us. We would
appreciate it if you would cover the cost of packaging and mailing.

* * *

I am afraid we must once more ask subscribers to help us, by providing
the names and addresses of persons who might be interested in
subscribing to APN. For reasons you will readily understand, most
APN subscribers are in the A?B income category: and it is exactly
these people who are now departing SA in such numbers. In the
last six to eight months we have lost between 180 and 200 subscribers
who have joined the rush to safer climes. Significantly - and
an indication that many of the departees wish to cut all ties
with their former homeland - only three will continue to get APN.

If you could provide us with the names of possible subscribers,
we will send then free sample copies of APN to let them see what
is on offer. It has been suggested that we make a special Christmas
offer at substantially reduced rates. Unfortunately, for us that
is not possible, operating as we do on the narrowest possible
margin on our domestic sales. But, clearly, we do have to do something
quite urgently to jack up our sales.

* * *

Those of us who are running Mission Rescue, our entirely voluntary
effort to help hard-luck Afrikaans kiddies, children of the unemployed
and disabled, have been discussing what we can do to make Christmas
just a little bit brighter for them. Many of these little scraps
have never possessed a new garment, hardly ever eat a decent meal.
If they get sweets, all too often it is because they steal them.
We have decided that we will provide special food parcels to as
many of our dependent families as possible. In these, we hope
to include a small gift and some goodies for the very small children.
One Good Samaritan says he will see if he can raise 100 small
T-shirts, carrying a logo if that becomes necessary.

If any among you care to help us in this effort and, believe me,
we know this is not a good time to ask South Africans for handouts
- we would be deeply grateful. If cheques are involved, please
do NOT endorse them to APN. Mark them Mission Rescue, Volkskas
Bank, Northcliff, account number 0738175166. We have taken on
far more than we ever envisaged in this rescue effort. We really
do need your help. Thank you.